


“Can I have this dance?”

by csenny



Category: The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: (and I feel confident enough about it to post in here too), Alternate Universe, Desert Island AU, F/M, also, some dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 04:21:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16256576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/csenny/pseuds/csenny
Summary: nikolina + 14 “Can I have this dance?” request in a very strange 'desert island AU but not really' setting





	“Can I have this dance?”

Alina broke the surface first. She got picked up by a larger wave and brought her right to the shores. Everything around her seemed foggy and it was hard to breath, but as she felt the sand under her hand her heart calmed down. The waves still washed around her, but she closed her eyes, not only to cool down, but to go through what happened just a few minutes ago.

But before she could do that she heard a big gasp behind her and when she opened her eyes again it was filled with fire.

“How could you do that?” she shouted as she turned around to face the captain.

Nikolai was barely standing as a wave washed over him, knocking him off his balance, but he managed not to fall over. “Happy to see you are alive too.”

“We almost died because of you!” He didn’t even raise an eyebrow at her accusation.

“But we are alive. And right now that’s all that matters.”

Alina stood up, but almost fall back as another wave came. After she was standing still she spoke calmly. “Yes, we are alive,” she paused and continued with the same rage as she started with. “But where are we?”

She turned back to take a look at where they end up at: a desert island. The sandy beach was followed with some tropical forest, which was like a little green spot in the middle of it. Even with that this island still was a small speck of dust in the middle of the True Sea.

“An island. This is an island.”

“I know!”

But Nikolai acted like he doesn’t even hear her. “Actually, this is quite nice.”

He looked around the first time and he felt like it could have been worse. Unfortunately Alina didn’t felt like that at all and since he wasn’t looking at her he wasn’t able to dodge when Alina plashed water at him.

“Hey!”

Alina stamped her feet. “We got stranded on a desert island!”

“It’s better than being in the depths of the ocean.”

“And why exactly are we even debating it, huh?” She put her hands on her hips. “Is it my fault? No. Is it the pirates’ fault, who captured us? No. Is it you crews fault, who abandoned us? No. It’s your fault.”

“Wait, why don’t you blame the pirates? They made you walk the plank.”

“Yes and why did I had to do that?” She paused for a second and tried to catch her breath. Almost drowning and shouting didn’t seem to work for her.

“I thought they will just toss us into the sea, like they usually do.” He walked forward, where the water didn’t touch the shore. “But you did it with such dignity. You should have seen their face.”

“How can you say that?” She went after him. “I supposed to be in Os Kervo tomorrow! You have any idea how important it is to me? They are waiting for me!”

“Then they will wait a bit more.”

Alina took a deep breath. “I can’t believe it.”

“Oh, look at that.” Nikolai walked closer to one of the trees. “Do you want some coconut?”

He turned back to Alina with a smile, but she wasn’t impressed with him at all. She was still upset and the fact that he didn’t seem to care about their current situation at all just made her even more furious.

She walked past him and headed right in the direction of the topical forest. Nikolai called after her as she began to cross it.

“Where are you going?”

“As far away from you as I can, you nonchalant loon!”

He didn’t say anything or at least she didn’t hear anything. She marched through it and a few minutes later ended up at the other side of the island. It was just like the other one: sand and some smaller rocks. Nothing else.

She went back a little, stopped around the middle of it and sit down on a log. She buried her face in her hands and wanted to calm down now. She needed to calm down.

Only a moment later she heard noises. She looked up, tried to find the source, but all she saw was a turtle.

“At least I have company.” The turtle moved slowly, but somehow she felt a bit better by its presence.

She looked at the side, where she came from. “How could he do that?”

She turned back to the turtle. “It was supposed to be a swift journey back to Ravka and I end up here. In a desert island. Why did it have to happen when it matter so much?”

She rested her chin on her hand and looked at the small animal. “You don’t know that, right?”

It was her first solo trip as a diplomat and she was sent to the Southern Colonies, which made her visit even more significant.

But she would have thought it would end badly. She was supposed to travel back with a different ship, but she got back to the port too late. Then she met with a pirate, who offered her that he will take her back to Ravka. Foolishly she took it and now here she is, in a desert island with the captain, who ’will take her home in a blink’.

They could have been around the coast by now. Alina only noticed the shouting, then she had realised that the ship have been attacked by pirates. Turns out those pirates didn’t like these pirates, especially the captain. And if it wasn’t enough the crew decided that they don’t want to be a part of any of that and escaped the attack in the jolly boats, leaving her and the captain behind.

Then the attackers wanted something back from the captain, she tried to tell them she has nothing to do with him, who she is and why she was there, but they didn’t believe her and decided to toss them into the sea. But quickly they canged their minds and made her walk the plank instead, but they tossed Nikolai after her.

He is right, they could have died. The waves were strong and the fact that there were land close to them is a miracle.

It’s not really him who she was angry, it was more the situation. She needed to blame someone for this and he was the closest, when actually she was the one who missed her ship and then made a deal with him.

She kept wondering about what happened until it got dark. The sun has gone down by now and a whole family of turtles gathered not too far from her. She stood up and saw something glowing among the leaves.

As she walked closer she got back to the shore where they arrived at. A fire was burning, around it three logs were placed, next to them a small breeze blow the wet clothes. Behind them an open chest, which seemed familiar to her and after a few steps she realized it was her chest and her clothes.

Nikolai was sitting on one of the logs, cooking fish over the fire. There were also some fruits and coconuts, which he probably found around there.

“I see you have been occupied.” She sat down to another log.

“And I see you are not mad anymore.”

“Look, I’m sorry, I was mad at everything and you were the only person I could shout at.”

“I’m not mad, in some way it was my fault, Miss Starkov.”

“I don’t think there is any reason not to get to first name basis.” She sighed. “And I hate Miss Starkov. Makes me remember of that awful Duke.”

“All right, Alina. Then we are fine, right?”

“Yes, we are.” She looked at him first, but then noticed the chest again. “Where did you find the chest?”

He turned the fish around. “Looks like they dumped our stuff into the sea. I collected as much as I could.”

Nikolai stood up and walked to the chest. He was looking for a brief minute, then pulled out a smaller box. Alina almost immediately noticed it.

“My music box. Is it…?”

Before she could ask he opened it and enchanting melody came from it. It made her smile.

Nikolai took a step closer to her and offered her his hand. “Can I have this dance?”

“Aren’t you guys only dance when you are drunk?”

“I can make an exception for you.”

She shook her head, but accepted his offer. Again.

He was a surprisingly good dancer and she almost felt a bit nervous about her own dance skills. But he didn’t say anything about that.

“I honestly wanted to get you back to Os Kervo in time. Never carried a diplomat to home before.”

“We are all the same boring people, who want’s peace and alliance.”

He snorted. “Boring.”

“Well, I’m not a hotshot pirate, like you.”

“Let’s stick with sailor.”

“I heard those pirates,” she looked up into his eyes. “They talked about you like they know you and as an outsider, it felt like they did know you very well.”

He avoided eye contact, looked over her, but then he noticed something: she was shivering.

“Are you cold?”

“No, I just want to kno—„ But he already let her go, went to the chest and picked up a coat.

“Put this on.” It was his coat. The rough brown material had seen better days. It was worn-out and torn around it’s pockets, but at least it was warm.

“Now you look like a pirate.” He grinned. “Only the hat’s missing.”

“You don’t have a hat?”

“Yeah, I do.” He walked back to the fire.

“And where is that?”

“I don’t know.”

Alina’s tilted her head. “What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I have a hat, I just left it somewhere, sometime, I don’t remember.” He took the fish off the fire.

“Then you don’t have a hat.”

“I do. I just don’t know where it is.”

She sighed. “Why don’t you just buy a new one?”

“Why, when I have a perfect one, I just have to wait until I find it.”

Alina had to take a deep breath and sat back down to the log.

“This is what it will be like from now? One of us get’s mad at the other, then we make peace, then it happens again and it will just go on and on.” She stared in front of her, into the dark waves. “We’re going to get crazy.”

“Don’t worry, won’t have time for that.”

“Right, we have to think about surviving. I’ve only met with turtles, so we will be fine, but we can’t eat fish all the time, we have to think about that…”

“Alina.” Nikolai tried to get her attention, but he failed.

“… Also, I thought we might could build a raft, maybe we could get to a bigger island or any other kind of land…”

“Alina.”

“… But I’m not sure we will find enough wood for it.”

“Alina!” His voice was harsher now and it has reached its goal.

“I know, I’m sorry. I just freaked out a bit about how long we have to stay there.” Then she rested her forehead on her hands.

“About seven hours.”

With her eyes wide open she looked up at him. “What?”

“There is a merchant ship that always passes not too far from here,” He pointed behind him. “And I’m sure they won’t going to toss us back to the sea.”

First, she could only blink, and needed a few seconds to be able to speak again. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?

He smirked. “So about that future, can I ask what did you plan a few years later, I mean, I’m sure you thought about how to increase the population of this island.”

She didn’t say anything. She just picked up a mango and throw it at him.


End file.
